Tasted from two different samples, one drawn before the filtration and one afterward, the unfiltered 2018 Pinot Noir "Unique" displays a dark color and opened with a deep, pure, fresh and intense, tart and concentrated, slightly toasty bouquet of black cherries and black berries intertwined with notes of dark chocolate, tobacco, cedar wood box, crushed slate and bloody hints of crushed iron and herbs. Generous on the intense yet elegant palate, this is a fleshy and concentrated Pinot with tart cherry and black berry flavors on the refined and promising, impressively tensioned finish. This full-bodied wine can currently give only hints about its talents, but the sustainable mineral grip and lingering salinity are highly promising. From the filtered tank that was ready to be bottled in early 2020 and already sulfured, the 2018 "Unique" opens very clear, pure, fresh and refined on the elegant yet also still reductive nose and shows a discreet expression of dark fruits, graphite, bloody meat, schist and chocolate. The palate is perfectly silky, round and fleshy, seamlessly textured, with intense and concentrated fruit and a crystalline and nervously mineral backbone structuring the full body. The tannins are perfectly extracted from both skins and 100% new oak barrels. This is a juicy yet pure and finessed, delicately fresh and crunchy Pinot that I'd cellar for at least 3 or 4 years but store enough bottles to drink in 20 or even 30 years. Tasted in January and February 2020.
Score: 95-96/100Stephan ReinhardtDrinking Window: 2022-2050
Unique is Donatsch’s top Pinot Noir cuvée. Made from Burgundy clones, aged in 100% new French oak barriques, this is their “Grand Cru” – mineral, silken and multi-layered. This wine displays amazing fruit purity on the nose – a medley of red cherry, blackcurrants, blackberry, redcurrants and raspberry, all robed in a delicate, peppery spice. On the palate, the tannins are pure silk. Juicy cherry plays the starring role, with a chocolatey gloss combining with layers of mineral concentration. Complex, but entirely at ease and delicious already, the patient buyer will be amply rewarded when this beauty unfurls its full potential with a few more (even many more) years of cellaring.
Score: -/FINE+RAREDrinking Window: 2022-2050
